The wreck was well broken up with only two boilers standing about 5m proud. After a while rummaging around most of the party headed back up the shot, having been diving on air. Steve, Grant and I headed up a slope of grass towards a wall. Slowly mooching up the slope with our computers just ticking into deco Grant noticed that the grass was not grass at all but brittle stars. Hundreds of them, thousands of them, so many in fact that there was no way I wanted to touch the bottom, I had visions of being eat alive by hundreds of tiny star fish. We got to the wall, which started about 20 meters and head up almost to the surface, here we mooched around loosing the deco slowly. We found the propeller and rudder of the wreck lying here they were huge. As soon as the deco cleared Grant signaled time out, which confused Steve and I as we had loads of air left and we assumed that Grant on his new twin set had lots of air left as well, obviously not. We agreed we would dive for 5 more minutes then surface. Those 5 minutes turned into around half an hour, with me thinking. “So how come Grant used all his air at 30 meters but is not using any now?” It turns out that the time out signal was really I have 100bar left! So much for a good buddy check at the start of the dive!
We were drifting along the wall at about 15 meters when Steve made a major scientific break though, he saw the first Napoleon wrasse ever found in British waters, he turned around to show Grant and I and was most disappointed to see us staring at a seal.
We spent the next 20 minutes being buzzed by this seal, it is truly amazing to see them move so fast under water. Top tip of the day for playing with seals, wear bright green fins, they love to chew on them. It is a little unnerving being in the water with seals, they are the largest predator in Britain and love to sneak up on you from behind. The Farnes is famous for seals and this dive made it all worth the long drive. The seal obviously knows the underwater landscape well, he was zooming in and out of gullies, appearing ahead of us, passing by then zooming off. It was a game for him to see how close he could get without being seen. Sadly we all were running a bit low on air so had to surface and cut short this experience.
Having a very early start meant we would head back into the port for breakfast, after a good fry up we headed back out again. We got to the second dive site and spotted a seal off in the distance. Excited by the prospect of another dive with seals we started to kit up, and then noticed the seal was heading for the boat.
It came right up to the boat and was as interested in us as we were in it. Everybody including the skipper and dog rushed to one side of the boat as the seal looked up at us.
The skipper was amazed he had never seen a seal this close to a boat ever. The seal swam slowly around the back of the boat, then around the other side causing the boat to almost capsize as we rushed to the other side to have a close look and even touch the seal.
After a short while the seal swam slowly off into the distance, leaving us all amazed and buzzed for the next dive, except the author that is who was not feeling great so kept the dog (buster) company on the boat. Buster would get very upset when divers were about kitted up and ready and try to stop them from getting off the boat. However once off the boat he totally forgot about the divers until they surfaced. Everybody had a good dive but sadly our friendly seal was not seen again. We headed back to the shore where half our party said their goodbyes and headed off down south. Steve, Emma, Kim and I were left, we decided to head into town to buy lunch, Steve and I wanted fish and chips but where overruled as that was what we were planning to have for dinner. The girls sent Steve and I off to buy lunch, which was a big mistake, in the bakery both Steve and I bought enough cakes and buns for all of us, giving us far to much food. We then somehow totally failed to pass a fish and chip shop so added fish and chips to our huge pile of food. Getting back we had a few pints, ate ourselves silly then some retired for a nap while some went sightseeing. And yes later we did have fish and chips again!
The next day was an even earlier start and again Steve was early. Monday we planned to only do one dive, on the wreck of the P&O liner Somalia. Steve and I descended the shot line and swam around the wreck which is about 8 meters proud in 30 meters of water, we thought we had hit the seabed at 24 and both felt a little over dressed with twin set and stage cylinders. We soon disappeared in the bowels of the wreck, looking at the huge triple expansion engine and the large boilers. The engine was home to about twenty large Pollock, which seemed unconcerned by our presence. One boiler was split open and a good swim though was in order, swimming though the boiler I realized how complicated a water tube boiler is. I had some how envisaged about 20 tubes, but there were hundreds. After about 30 minutes on the main part of the wreck we headed out over a hold, picking up glass bottles, cine film and tyres along the way. I found a tunnel-like swim though and seeing the end clearly headed though it. It turned out to be a bit tighter than I thought. Hitting my tanks on the ceiling I destroyed the viz behind me, so Steve waited outside for it to clear. I got to the far end only to realise that I could not fit out of the hole, it was very tight so I did not feel I was able to turn around. Steve was starting to wonder where I was so swam along the top of the tunnel, following my bubbles. Just as he got to the other end he saw a yellow stage cylinder come flying out of the hole. I was very relieved to see him there. Having taken off my stage I had a lot more room and was able to squeeze out with Steve pushing and pulling. Sheepishly I put my stage back on vowing never to go into small holes in wrecks ever again. (And if you believe the last bit you are madder than I am). We continued around the wreck heading for the bows. At 60 minutes of bottom time we decided to head up to start our deco. At 6 meters Steve pointed to his watch. It was 9 in the morning and we had just down an hours dive and were about halfway though our deco. When we got back on the boat everyone was laughing at me as I had gone down a black techy diver and come up, well rusty would be the best word. It took ages to clean the rust off my kit that I had got in that small hole. We headed back to shore and by 10 were eating breakfast, this early diving could well catch on.
This was my second trip to the Farnes and again I loved it. The scenic dives are the best ones, and this is coming from a diehard wreck diver. We all vowed we would be back next year. And with that we drove off into the distance just like this seal. (Except with less water)
Gavin